Bach draws crowd, inspires artistsCONCERT REVIEW
By William Glackin
Sacramento Bee Arts Critic at Large
March 21, 1997
Bach: Mass in B Minor
Claire Kelm, Soprano
Elspeth Franks, Soprano
Elisabeth Eliassen, Alto
Neal Rogers, Tenor
Boyd Jarrell, Bass
California Vocal Academy
Sacramento Chamber Orchestra
Zvonimir Hacko, Conductor
The greatest masterpieces have a way of brining out the best in performers, and Bach's B Minor Mass did it again to the Sacramento Chamber Orchestra Friday night in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.
It also brought out the biggest audience the orchestra has had this season -- more than 900. And executive director Deborah Case said the same number of tickets had been sold for Saturday night's performance, which could be expected to draw some walk-ups as well.
The performance Friday, which was often thrilling, reflected credit on music director Zvonimir Hacko, whose generally brisk tempos kept things from flagging (although they seemed to hurry both soprano Elspeth Franks and solo violinist William Barbini just a little in the Laudamus Te section of the Gloria).
But the performance, at many notable points in its two-and-a-half-hour course, was also a reminder of how many good players there are in the orchestra. Bach wrote some wonderful solo instrumental roles in this work that are actually partnerships with the vocal solos, and they were played outstandingly well by Barbini, oboist Andrea Plesnarski and Marie Park, bassoonist Slawomir Krysmalski, flutist Rebecca Pollock-Ayres and especially horn player Peter Nowlen, joining bass baritone Boyd Jarrell in the noble Quoniam toward the end of the Gloria.
Furthermore, a key element in the whole evening was the strength and steadiness of the accompanying continuo trio that supported these solo numbers -- bassist Raymond Vargas, cellist Robin Bonnell and baroque organist David Deffner. Another crucial element, well supplied, was the bright sound of the high trumpets that lit up the glory of certain celebratory moments, played by James Rodseth, Scott Macomber and John Leggett.
But most of all, of course, the B Minor Mass belongs to the chorus, and the 24 voices in San Francisco's California Vocal Academy, founded originally by Paul Hillier and now led by Jarrell, who is also cantor and associate choirmaster at Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill, sang brilliantly, with great fidelity to the spirit of this greatest of all settings for the Mass. All the excellent soloists, by the way, sang in the chorus.
They included, as well as Jarrell and Franks, soprano Claire Kelm, alto Elisabeth Eliassen and tenor Neal Rogers.
Early on, Kelm and Franks blended joyfully in the Christe Eleison (Christ Have Mercy). Eliassen's Qui Sedes (Who sitteth at the Right Hand) showed a voice of excellent quality, as did her later, somber Agnus Dei (Lamb of God).
The great celebrations -Et Resurrexit, which hails the Resurrection of Christ, and Et Expecto (which anticipates the resurrection of the dead) -- rang out in an exciting way, in both chorus and orchestra. But one of the greatest moments in the work, the opening section of the Credo, with the long notes I Believe blazing their message to all the world over a marching bass line, was actually highly personal. In full-voice moments Friday the choir was thrilling.
Such moments included the opening of the with the fugue on Et in terra (And on earth, peace) like a blessing of sunshine, the way the fugal Cum Sancto Spiritu (With the Holy Spirit) swung in to end the Gloria in its grand, excited way; the big sound of the Sanctus, very like the swinging of censers; the heartfelt plea for peace in the very last chorus, with the trumpets and timpani joining in.